We are Medicine

Last Friday EcoMaste, members from Finca Morpho, ambassadors from NuMundo, and the local community organized a community gathering. We brought many heart-earth centered beings together. Honestly as the stewards of the land we felt some trepidation about holding this gathering. In the wake of Covid19, there is a collective feeling of fear, which some can feel more than others. We felt that it was important to acknowledge that both humanity and Mother Earth are going through a time of deep change.

We gathered under the Full Moon in Scorpio bringing the energies of life, death, unseen, and transformation to the surface. This Full Moon known as the Buddha Moon because it is said that he was born, enlightened, and died during this time. This aspect invoking an air of reincarnation and regeneration. We began our opening ceremony acknowledging these energies, honoring the four directions, elements, our ancestors, those indigenous to this land, and to Mother Earth herself.

Something amazing happens when a group of people gather with a clear intention especially when its aligned with respect, love, and gratitude to whatever land you that is holding you. Acknowledgment that the land is ultimately hosting us, we are the guests. So as conscious guests facilitating an experience we offered many things and one of great importance was our intent to co-create a space of joy, love, safety, and healing.

After two months of little interactions with loved ones, friends, and even strangers many of us have felt a huge ache for physical and energetic connection. The event we held on Friday reminded us of how important it is for everyone to connect in those ways.

The value of touch was honored and I realized all the times I've taken for granted touching and being touched. The times I've embraced someone because I felt obligated some how. When I've felt the urge to reach out but have repressed that desire. Continuing to teach me about how important it is to listen deeply to your body's intelligence. Cultivating kindness by making boundaries with others. Using discernment, embracing only from a place of authenticity not obligation.

This event was a peak experience for many who attended. The Full Moon energies Scorpio transmutes; intensity and unseen divine feminine presence was received and expressed in many forms. It was as if we were all Daturas (Moonflower) opening to the reflection of the Sun the Moon embodies. Going into our depths, shaking, moving, singing, dancing, touching, and simply being together.

Peak experiences are woven throughout our lives. Some more meaningful than others. There has been an enormous wave of people seeking out plant medicine for healing, but many receive a peak experience instead. These peak experiences is were revelations are experiences but integration is where true healing happens.

Two months prior or two Full Moons ago EcoMaste and other organizers attempted to hold a community gathering as some of you may know. However that was not possible because we were recommended by Shaman Mamo Hatilio from the Teyuna Collective that the land was sick and not ready for visitors.

We took Mamo Hatilo's advice to heart and spent the last couple of months listening, observing, meditating, and loving the land. Cultivating this relationship moment by moment a subtle transformation began to unfold. We realized that the land's state of being "sick" was yet another reflection of humanity's sickness. During this time we were able to hold space for the land to rest and rebuild herself. What we didn't take into consideration was that by us offering a time of convalescence we were actually healing each other in the process.

Many of us think of terms of how we can express and project ourselves in this world. But another valid, perhaps under-utilized perspective is how our environment shapes us. Here at EcoMaste there is always a song in the air, a smell of earth, fruits, and flowers, a dancing of leaves in the wind, and so many other seen and unseen expressions which are ultimately affecting every being in this ecosystem. Each day there is a gift that emerges from the land, and from within us.

How can we best offer our gifts to the land, ourselves, and our community? How can we distill and extract the medicinal properties of our beings? What is the most effective way of taking in this medicine and for how long? At EcoMaste we are reflecting on these questions during our time of integration. We need to acknowledge that we are all individuals parts of an inseparable community. Our individual gifts and flaws must be honored and utilized. If correctly nurtured, cut back, harvested and extracted we make potent medicine just like our plant brothers and sisters.

This event was an activation for us to realize and embody our own unique medicinal properties. We are hosting events like this to collaborate together to create ecological, intentional communities, and enterprises so we can have the most potent, sustaining impact on healing ourselves and bringing back balance to the planet from our roots.

Invitation to distill your medicine and share it with the World

Weinvite you to give yourself the time to integrate what your experience has been wherever you are over the last few months. Take your time, slow down, ask yourself, what are your medicinal properties? How can you nourish them and make them available for the collective?

If what we are co-creating with Finca Morpho, NuMundo and the local community (Tinamaste) is of interest please directly reach out at: info@ecomaste.com

May we trust and reclaim the power we have in any situation and

be the medicine we seek and is seeking us.

Finding Order in Chaos

My experience with the indigenous tribe from Colombia the Aruacos who are part of the Collective Teyuna was one of the most powerful of my life. We traveled the South Pacific of Costa Rica from the March 4th-12th. I was blessed to spend the entire journey with them because my husband, was one of the main coordinators. I really had no idea what I was in for. I packed enough clothes for two days and five days later I found myself in the middle of our journey. We met with tribes indigenous to Costa Rica and offered pagamentos or offerings with specific intentions to designated areas. This was the first time that the Teyuna and many of these tribes had met. It was so important to for these tribes to come together because it was a potent reminder that they are not alone as guardians of their land.

The Teyuna think of themselves as the guardians of the World. They are on a mission to bring order back to the planet. This order they speak of isn't conforming to a strict dogma written by man. It is one of simplicity, ancient knowledge, written by nature. Something that the modern world has gotten further, and further away from since colonialism, the industrial age, and the era of capitalism. We have gotten so wrapped up in the matrix. We work so we can afford our cars, houses, toys, vacations, etc. But what happens to the living part of life? Who takes care of our bodies; physically, emotionally, spiritually, energetically? Who takes care of our children; teaching them by example and experiences? Who takes care of the land that we live on? As we ponder these questions and come to honest answers more often than not there is a feeling of abandonment.

The deep ache in the human psyche is something swept under our conscious awareness but it is deeply ingrained into societies who have distanced themselves from living in union with nature. It explains much of the mental ailments that so much of our population suffers from. Understanding this ache can also give rise to compassion for all because we all feel this pain on a collective level even if its subconsciously.

For those of us who have awoken or accepted our reality it is also an opportunity to be tactful and teachers to those who are still living in the illusion of materialism. Instead of judging them for mindless consumption we can ask questions, we can tell them how we understand why they feel the need to act in this way. We can relate to others by speaking of this collective void we all feel. Once we have built a bridge to others whom live differently then ourselves we can begin share what are practices have made us remember our wholeness. But imposing our ideas, separating ourselves from people who live their lives differently is trying to solve a problem from the same kind of energy which the problem was created, disconnection.

The time I spent with Teyuna and other indigenous tribes gave me the chance to create some space around my unconscious patterns that perpetuate this deep ache. I was taken out of my convenient life in the States. I tell myself, "my life is so easy, I have everything I want."

But why do I want a life that is so easy? How much of what I consume is something I truly "want" and how much is what I've been "programmed" to want? What value can we gain by living an existence that isn't "easy" but that has its challenges that encourage growth and innovation. Being with those who live in a more simplistic lifestyle you see how little you really need to have a purpose and fulfillment. Not to say that you have to live in a hut without electricity or running water. We can have the things that serve a purpose which allow us to be the most productive and vibrant people in accordance with nature. We just have to get curious and seek out those who are living the reality that we aspire too.

We have lost the value of creating a loving and respectful relationship with ourselves. Instead we look to others and society to tell us we are enough, worthy, and capable. This builds a foundation of disorder because all of our relationships are built off of being validated by something outside of ourselves. This encourages egocentric behavior that pollutes all aspects of our lives. We create our own chaos and always turn to someone else to blame.

So how does one live a life of order? I believe the Coronavirus is an opportunity for us to re-order and transform the disorder in our lives. The fact that there is some much pandemonium over this Virus in itself speaks volumes. Yes people are sick, yes people are dying. But we live in a world where there is more any enough resources to feed everyone yet 9 million people die each year from hunger. That's almost 25,000 people a day!! (click for reference) Why isn't this on mainstream news everyday? How could something so substantial be so overlooked. As of today, March 21st 13,000 people have died, and there are 304,493 cases globally confirmed. (click for reference) The reason why there is so much fear around this is because we feel the immediacy of it happening to us. Why don't we care about the millions of people who die from preventive ailments everyday? Because of disorder and disconnection.

The media has blown this virus into a machine of fear. Why are we so easily swayed into a state of chaos and scarcity? Because the people who are in power know that our power relies on us rebuilding a healthy relationship with ourselves, our communities, and the land. We are now all called back from the places we've traveled to our places origin. Then, instead of coming together we are being separated for preventive measures. Yes these measures will help lower your chances of contracting the virus. But we must use this time of separation very carefully. We are dancing on a fine line of scarcity, fear, and isolation. All of these create more disease, more disorder. This is a time to reflect on how, what, whom and why you expend and consume energy? What are the implications? What are the wastes? What could you release? What is a priority? How are you making those things a priority each day?

What do we need to survive? Clean water, air, food, land, shelter, community.

To the indigenous land is the most sacred. It is not a commodity, a resource, or something that we have to protect or heal. The land is our mother she is one to be honored and respected. The Mamo explained that putting a sign do not liter is out of order. The fact that we need to put signs up stating the obvious illustrates the sickness of humanity. We are out of order and so is the planet.

We must now take the time to bring our attention back home, and by home I mean our bodies. When was the last time you said, "I love you to yourself?" The last time you massaged your feet? The last time you held yourself and fell into your own embrace. Whatever the answer there is no judgement, just an awareness. Now right, right now is the time to rebuild a relationship to yourself like you never have before. Our borders, schools, grocery stores, restaurants, churches, community centers are closing. So we have to create these centers of nourishment within ourselves. We have to communicate to each other more than ever before on how we can utilize our skills and resources so no one is left behind`, no one, no land, no body is abandoned. We already have everything we need to thrive but we can only do this together listening and following the natural order.

A Call To Action

Since the end of December there have been some huge shifts that have helped EcoMaste come to fruition. Jose decided to embark on an adventure to Costa Rica 6 weeks before getting married. Being his wife I can speak to my apprehension of him leaving. But I know that when Jose has something calling him he will follow. He began his journey doing a Bamboo Building Course with Trey Abernethy through Natural Building Costa Rica. During this Bamboo course he learned how to harvest, treat, and build. He was amazed at the knowledge, discipline, and work ethic Trey embodies. Being around someone that not only has big thoughts but follows with action has been incredibly motivating and inspirational.

In 2018 Jose made a connection to indigenous tribes from Colombia, where we he is originally from. The Kogis are one of the four tribes that make up the Teyuna. They fled the Spanish Conquistadors to the Sierra Nevada. They came out of their recluse about 40 years ago with a message to major world leaders that we need to change our ways of treating the planet like its an infinite resource to treating Mother Earth as a living organism that she is.

While being in Costa Rica Jose found himself meeting people who are major players in the community of Tinamastes. Specifically he met a man named Kevin who talked to Jose about a vision he had on one of his experiences with Ayahuasca. He received a message to offer ceremonies in cave which he found in the area. In this cave he saw an Eagle and a Condor united. The Eagle representing the North and the Condor representing the South. Kevin is obviously not the first to have this vision. It is a well know prophecy for many indigenous tribes of the world. The message is clear that there is a need to reunite the North and South and we must do what bring a balance to these polarities.

Shortly after some synchronicities started to unfold. Jose sent a picture of Costa Rica to the social leader of the Kogi, Kandimaku. He shared that him and the other shamans or Mamos had been meditating on coming to Costa Rica. They've been wanting to come to this area to offer pagamentos or payments to Earth. They view Costa Rica as the esophagus of the Earth. A bridge between the North and South, and the Eagle and the Condor.

Jose felt a call to action and has been doing all that he can to help manifest their meditation intention. He got a huge wave of support from the local community. Especially from the sisters as Jose calls them, Keyna, Coordinator of the Domincal Feria, India, Co-Founder & COO of Imiloa, Chiara, Co-founder of Expandir Conciencia Association, and Ginette, Co-founder of Secret Energy who all have united forces to make this vision a reality. They've welcomed Jose as one of their own. Everyone I have met as well has welcomed me with open arms. A kind of embrace we very rarely experience in the western world.

We have recently gotten married since the beginning of this story. To us our wedding represented not only the celebration of our love but the uniting of the north and south. I'm from the States, Massachusetts and Jose, from Colombia, Bogota. From two different cultures, different continents and yet we have found each other, fallen in love, and are building a life of abundance, connection, and joy in Costa Rica.

We are blessed with the opportunity to start this journey by hosting the Mamos to stay at EcoMaste, our Eco-lodge, retreat and learning center. Our hope is to open this lodge to the community that has embraced us since being here. Another goal of ours is to facilitate deepening relationships with the expat community and the local Ticos. We believe the Kogi presence will help elevate and clear what no longer serves this beautiful area.

There is no denying the recent explosion of development in Costa Rica. This has brought commerce, a surge of expats, and the cultures they bring with them. It has also changed the dynamic for many Costa Ricans, some have embraced the change but change is not always easy. There is a disconnect from the Ticos and the expat community that many know and feel but it is uncomfortable to name. Jose is an expat himself but he relates to the Ticos so well that many don't realize he isn't a Tico, until noticing his accent. Jose immigrated the States when he was thirteen years old so he knows what it feels like to be an outsider. But he has always had a curiosity and excitement to engage in the unknown. He seems to make a home wherever he finds himself. This is the spirit that EcoMaste was birthed from. We want create a haven where people feel at home no matter if they are native or foreign. A place where people can learn from Mother Earth and from each-other. A place of spirit, heart, and communion with source. When we come back to the gifts of nature, when quiet ourselves enough we are able to hear the call of spirit. This is our time to share what we've been hearing. Join us to find out more about upcoming events with the Mamos by reaching out directly at info@ecomaste.com or go to the home page of www.ecomaste.com.

With much love, pura vida and many blessings!

AB